Bring the Arcade to Your Android Phone with MAME4droid

A port of popular arcade emulator MAME has made it to Android devices, with support for over 2,000 different ROM sets.

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Arcade emulator MAME provides a popular pastime for many people. Not only does it allow retro gaming enthusiasts to play arcade titles of the past on their home computers, it's also provided a means for those who like the more "authentic" touch to rebuild arcade machines without having to track down expensive and/or impossible to find parts.

Now, the MAME experience has come to Android devices thanks to free app MAME4droid. The app is a port of version 0.37b5 of the standard MAME package, and supports over 2,000 different romsets, though developer David Valdeita is keen to note that "some will run better than others and some might not even run with MAME4droid." He also notes that owners of older Android devices "should not expect good performance."

Note that as with any form of emulation, it's technically illegal to download copyrighted ROMs for which you do not own a license or which the original owners have not granted permission to distribute. As such, MAME4droid doesn't come with any ROMs, leaving it up to the user to track them down themselves.

If you're happy to bear in mind all the usual considerations with emulation, though, grab a free copy of MAME4droid and get ready to rediscover a ton of arcade classics in their original forms on your phone.